Building/Finding/Creating/Imagining Communities

I’ve always wondered how communities work. Are they existing structures that can be found? Are they constructed? Or are they only a part of our imaginations? While there are plenty of theories out there, I wanted to know how they work in real life and how people found them or made them work.

Earlier this month I was invited to take part in an oral history. The oral history was part of a gathering of Asian Women United. The women gathered around to hear one of their older member’s oral history and they all took turns in asking questions. Although these women had known their fellow member for several years, they had never quite had the opportunity to sit down and hear her entire story. I was truly fortunate to take part in this process and not only hear one woman’s amazing story from Trinidad to New York City, but also to witness the “community” in these women.

I had heard about these women and learned about them because I processed their collection, which is held at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. I learned some of the members names, read some of their stands on issues (from their notes and newsletters), and wondered more about who these women were beyond the papers that were in the box marked by a collection number. Meeting these women and watching them catch up with one another allowed me to witness a part of this group that was somewhat hinted at in some of the newsletters, but could only be seen in person. Throughout the last thirty years as each woman changed and grew, the other women supported her and were supported by her. There are still some complexities and details that cannot be documented about this living, breathing community of women that is still providing support for each other. The archivist in me wanted to pull out my camera and my notebook to start recording and taking notes (even before the oral history began). The woman in me wanted to enjoy the moment and take the opportunity to get to know some of the people beyond the names I had seen in the records.

Through three previous oral history interviews that I did with the women before this group oral history, I was told that when they first began in the late 1970’s in New York City, there were no other Asian American women’s groups that were created to really support each other. There were several other groups that formed for certain issues, but not one that was regularly meeting for a broad range of issues. And from those same interviews, I felt that most of the time the women felt it was much more important to express the friendships formed by these women and the support that they gave each other than the actual work that was done. As they looked back on the last 30 years, they could not remember all the details of every issue they got involved in or all the activities they had done, but they remembered the desire to really educate themselves and each other on the various issues going on at the time. (This could have also been to the fact that the group’s political activities were mainly in their early years, nearly twenty years ago. In the mid ‘80’s they decided to reformat the group and focus only on the support network aspect of the group.) They felt it was important to be educated not only on issues about Asian Americans or women, but all kinds of social injustice or workers rights’ issues. These women were building a community with each other, but also reaching out to build community with other people.

For me, community is something that is built, found, created, and imagined. Communities are built and created in a time when people need to gather together. Race or ethnicity is not what ties people together, but rather a need for support among people who also want to create a safe environment for them to exist. Although these women may check the same “Asian/Pacific Islander American” box on the census, they are a diverse group of women who come from all sorts of backgrounds (wealthy/poor, from California, Chinatown NYC, or Long Island) and experiences. In 1978 when they officially formed, they found a group of women who were as eager to be involved in social issues as they were. By 1986, the women were still interested in providing support for each other, but were no longer as interested in AWU’s political activities. They had become involved in participating in activities with other organizations, building their own families, focusing on their careers, or other matters. At their annual retreat, they re-imagined their own community and decided to continue on as just a social networking group. The friendship that continues is the one that I witnessed a few weeks ago. In this same right, the Asian/Pacific American community is something that is made up of many communities that are built are certain ideas, formed, then re-imagined at different points in time.

Then, how can we define an Asian/Pacific American community through archives if we are an ever-changing community?

(to be continued…)

Going Digital

How The Personal Becomes Political in Archives

Beginning Again

Accessing and Connecting with Archives

“Where is the ‘heart’ of Asian America,” and what does it look like?

If these Blogs could talk…

A project 7 years in the making…

Exhibiting Archives: The Politics of Archives

“Asian/Pacific Americans” and “Archives”